Frankenstein’s guitar! This crazy mod adds a MIDI keyboard to a Gibson Les Paul
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LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER's Strange modded Gibson Les Paul Synthesizer - · Source: YouTube/LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER
LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER has uploaded a new video, this time exploring his, ahem, highly modified Gibson Les Paul. YouTube’s favourite mad sonic scientist has hacked hacked up and twisted an old guitar into a MIDI controller, adding backlit buttons to play individual notes. This one will make you Les Paul purists cringe.
Gibson Les Paul Synthesizer
LMNC’s Gibson Les Paul looks like something out of a Back To The Future film series. For a band project he decided to build a MIDI controller into his guitar. He asked his dad to help him mill out the back to provide space for the electronics. The controller takes the form of 22 LED buttons that (kinda) emulate two octaves of keys. This being a Look Mum No Computer project, he used arcade machine buttons.
The controller runs from a load of AA batteries, as it would kill a standard 9 volt PP3 battery in seconds because the LED circuit has no resistors. He carried out the mod around 10 years ago and also did a similar job on a bass guitar and a pink Epiphone Les Paul. The Epiphone is now a wall hanger though, as it was cannibalised for parts.
Frankenstein’s Les Paul · Source: YouTube/LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER
Frankenstein’s Guitar
It must have taken a bit of courage to hack a Gibson Les Paul with arcade style buttons – but if it did the trick then all power to him. He does state at one point that the keyboard section is quite hard to play as he cannot really see where he is playing when using it live. But who cares, it looks pretty darn cool!
The hack job routing on the back of this Frankenstein’s monster of a Les Paul is the icing on the cake. The metal plate that covers the hole where the neck pickup once lived is pretty awesome, too.
Check out the video below for more on this nuts modification. His YouTube guitar is well worth a rummage, too. Guitar purists may want to avoid this one…
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3 responses to “Frankenstein’s guitar! This crazy mod adds a MIDI keyboard to a Gibson Les Paul”
not really news, or u gonna show us every look mum no computer video with descriptions ?
I know, I wrote about it this morning and now every major guitar news site has followed with the same story. Anyone would think it was a slow news day or something…. Only a matter of time before Gibson does something stupid or maybe Fender will reissue something old and forgotten in a new colour scheme. Watch this space!
I would have started with D.